


Four is Three plus One

by Dreaming_Writer



Series: Legend of Zelda Posts [5]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Headcanon, I hurt some good boys, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Reincarnation, Souls, Triforce Heroes was way too cheery so I had to change something, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:22:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24421243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreaming_Writer/pseuds/Dreaming_Writer
Summary: Once upon a time there was a magical sword that was said to shatter the body of whoever dared to draw it. It was called the Four Sword and it sealed great Evil away.But one day, with his land endangered and everyone he loved as good as gone, a brave boy, whose soul held the blessing of the goddesses, drew the sword when tricked into it by his own shadow.Thus the great Evil was released and boy himself found his body, mind and very soul ripped into four equal pieces. These pieces rallied themselves up against the Evil and defeated it with the help of the redeemed shadow – at the price of the shadow´s own life.This is the story how people know it, ending with the placement of the Four Sword back into its pedal and the merging of the four pieces back into one boy.In most universes things might tend to end this way, but there was once another universe where there was another story. This is the universe whose story you are about to learn...
Relationships: Blue Link & Green Link & Red Link & Vio Link, Link & Shadow Link
Series: Legend of Zelda Posts [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1653892
Comments: 32
Kudos: 46





	1. The Four

**Author's Note:**

> Found this hidden in my files while cleaning up my laptop for university. I figured, even though I had once planned for this to become a multi-chapter story, it'd be better if I posted it for now here as a One-Shot. So take this and enjoy. Might continue one day when I'm done with my main project (namely Babble).

Once upon a time there was a magical sword that was said to shatter the body of whoever dared to draw it. It was called the Four Sword and it sealed great Evil away.

But one day, with his land endangered and everyone he loved as good as gone, a brave boy, whose soul held the blessing of the goddesses, drew the sword when tricked into it by his own shadow.

Thus the great Evil was released and boy himself found his body, mind and very soul ripped into four equal pieces. These pieces rallied themselves up against the Evil and defeated it with the help of the redeemed shadow – at the price of the shadow´s own life.

This is the story how people know it, ending with the placement of the Four Sword back into its pedal and the merging of the four pieces back into one boy.

In most universes things might tend to end this way, but there was once another universe where there was another story. This is the universe whose story you are about to learn...

0oOo0

After the defeat of Ganon and Vaati and the sacrifice of Shadow Link, the four Links were at a bit of an impasse of what to do next. Zelda might have advised them to place their sword back and go back into being just one, but they were unsure if that was really their only and best choice, seeing as they had become close to each other and didn´t want to say goodbye yet. And especially they wanted to give Vio time to research about how to bring Shadow back, who had taken the loss the hardest.

And so they started traveling despite Zelda’s warnings not to, for if the Four Sword would not be placed back into it’s pedestal, the seal holding Ganon within the sword would weaken and surely break.

They traveled together for months upon months until one day they reached a kingdom called Hytopia. There they encountered many people who were scared and dressed in simple black jumpsuits. The people told them that they had been cursed by an evil wizard for being more fashionable than him.

Though this curse wasn´t the worst thing the four heroes had ever seen or heard of, they promised to take care of the problem and traveled to the land’s capitol, to meet the royal family. There they were only greeted by the young prince of the kingdom as his parents had been hit by the curse as well.

And as the prince begged them to save his country, the heroes promised to do so. Therefore they were guided to an old wizard who was living in the castle, who would help them go to the only magically reachable Drablands, where the angry fashion-wizard had hidden himself.

But upon wanting to enter the Drablands, the four Links encountered a new problem.

0oOo0

“WHAT?!” came out of three different throats of three differently clad boys while the fourth, Vio, looked simply annoyed at that announcement. The Prince fidgeted while the old wizard taking the brunt of their angry stares didn´t even as much as twitch.

“Only three people at a time may enter the Drablands” the he repeated himself strictly. “Not one more, not one less.”

„You...you cannot do that!“ Blue screamed, angered. “Yeah” agreed Red “We won´t leave anyone behind.” “Because we are a team” Green finished firmly.

“Then I cannot help you. Three, nothing else” the old man repeated again, even firmer and Blue looked absolutely ready to murder the man at that point, especially as the young prince had burst into tears of desperation, tears which Red tried to quell...with next to no success.

At that point it seemed like they had hit a dead-end, until suddenly Vio spoke up: “It´s fine guys, really. You can go. I´ll stay here. This land needs to be saved.” Cutting of any protesting remarks of his friends, brothers, parts, or whatever (a fact which made this situation even more dramatic as it hadn´t been the first time Vio had split off from them), Vio smiled softly: “You got to save this country, no buts. They´ve got a big library here. There´s got to be some books about magic there. Maybe I´ll even find one that´ll... you know...”

He stopped himself from saying anything more, but there wasn´t anything more needed to say. His teammates looked almost as saddened at the reminder as he felt, and none protested any longer. Especially as the young prince had started babbling about the books of magic in their library and how he could arrange Vio to be taught any magic he wanted by their court wizards while the other three were away.

And so the matter was finished and done and three heroes of four of the Four Sword readied themselves for the travel and new adventure ahead of them. The goodbye was - even though it would only be for a few hours – harder than anything.

“We´ll be back soon, don´t do anything we wouldn´t” Blue said, trying to lift the mood and Vio managed a weak smile at that: “It´s not me you should be worried about.” “Vio...” Red simply said, trying and failing to hide the tears in his eyes before he ran and hugged Vio. Once they separated, Green approached the team member they would be forced to leave behind: “You know, we can switch out and everyone will regularly get the chance for a break. It´ll be fun.” Vio shook his head: “I´ll think about it. And now go and save this fashion-crazy land.”

At that, the others nodded firmly.

And so they did.

But Vio never took up on their offer.

0oOo0

“Don´t move, don´t move, goddesses I said don´t move!” screamed the artist in despair as he tried to create his masterpiece a real-life sized stone statue of the so called “Totem Heroes”, a fact which caused Vio to grin as he laid in the shadow of a tree writing, while the other four swords heroes were less lucky than he. To be exact, they were currently stashed upon each other in their now trademark totem position.

“What have you been eating” grunted Blue, who got the unfortunate lowest place in their formation, out. But well, he had been the one to hot-headily declare he would be strong enough to hold his other two companions up for hours, a sentence which he by now deeply regretted.

“Cookies, lots of Cookies and Cake from the celebration” the red hero seated upon his shoulders admitted meekly. After the three had defeated the evil wizard and had his curse reversed, the whole country celebrated for weeks, especially now their own and new heroes. Under these conditions it was no surprise to find Red at one of the many buffets, for he had the sweetest sweet tooth of the three. A fact which now only acted as an additional burden for his blue clad friend.

“I don´t mean to cry about the fact that I´m on the top...but my sword arm is kinda dying right now” Green commented, grimacing. He paused for a moment, before nodding: “Yep, I can´t feel it anymore.” Said arm was still locked into position held over his head, displaying his sword proudly.

Pride, which none of the three heroes felt at the moment as their muscles shook for holding their position for as long as they had..

“Don´t move” bit the sculptor out. Twin groans escaped the boy´s throats at that, until finally Blue’s knees gave in and the whole group toppled unceremoniously to the ground.

Under the screeches of the artist they crawled to their fourth team member into the shade of the tree. “Not a word” Blue growled out, as he caught Vio’s amused glance. “What a pity” Vio commented dryly, humor in his eyes. “And I just wanted to show you the poem about you that shall be cherished for generations to come.”

Only one glance was needed before Vio found himself chased by a very angry suddenly re-energized Blue, under the laughter of Green and the worried calls of Red.

0oOo0

When the day of departure came, Vio left his brothers to do the explaining and to bring his borrowed books back into the library.

But when he came into the room where he and his brothers had agreed to meet, he was surprised to not find any of his brothers there. Quickly, he searched through the castle, until he found them, the king, the old mage and some knights in the room which had been used for the teleportation.

Everything was in upper Chaos.

And to his shock, he found Green and Red fighting against the Knights, protecting a wooden doll that scarily looked like them, as it clutched a wooden sword.

The old mage was waving his staff and muttering words under his breath, and the king was bellowing things like “They’re our heroes, ours alone! They may not leave! What if that wizard returns?! I cannot live without my perfect style! Stop them! Make them stay! Bind them!”

Suddenly the mage released a spell at Red, who was distracted blocking a hit by knight, and was full on hit by the spell. And Vio watched in utter shock, unable to move or even comprehend as his brother, his part, transformed into another wooden doll.

Green apparently was not ready for this either, for a knight managed to get a really nasty hit on him, which apparently had not been planned, for the king started screeching about how he needed his heroes alive, and to capture them alive and not maimed or worse.

And it was then that Green’s eyes found Vio’s and the green clad hero mouthed „Go and get help!“ before swiftly attacking the next knight while his blood stained the floor red. Then the hero reflected a spell with his sword, sending it at a wall. And the mage turned and stared after it, cursing.

And that was when he saw Vio.

And Vio finally managed to uproot himself from where he stood, his mind telling him that storming in there in Blue-Style would be idiotic and get him either dead or cursed.

And so Vio ran out of the castle, dodging knights, swords and curses.

He knew he would have fleeing until he would reach Hyrule, because after what he had just witnessed there was no way Hytopia's King would let him go freely.

And so he ran, not wanting to think about the fact that he was leaving his brothers cowardly behind. He did not want to think about about Blue and Red's wooden bodies nor did he want to think about all the blood Green had been loosing.

He simply dodged some more curses and hid inside a few bushes at the side of the way, muttering the few concealment spells he had learned.

And just when he wanted to sit down and give a breath of relief as his chasers rushed past his hideout he realized that his limbs did not cooperate. Dread filled his stomach as he understood that one last stray spell had managed to hit its target.

Chanting every counter curse he knew as the wood continued to climb up his body, he inwardly wondered why it took so long to turn him, unlike his brothers. Probably because he was only hit by a stray spell, instead of head on, like he had seen with Red, a detached part of his mind explained.

And then his mouth was gone and he couldn't breath! Could not breath!

He had failed.

Failed to smash the dark mirror.

Failed to revive Shadow.

Failed to save his brothers now and get the help they needed.

For all the things he planned and did with his incredibly intellect, all of them failed.

As he did now, too.

_“I...am...so...s...o...r...r...y...”_

Darkness claimed him and he knew no more.


	2. Emphatic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A small emphatic boy befriends a cursed wooden doll.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did I say about fickle motivation? I'm a sucker for positive feedback, it gets my creative juices flowing like nothing else. So take this and enjoy!

Once there was a young boy that loved exploring. He was small and clever and could fit into places the other kids could not fit inside, or where they didn't dare to go lest their clothes would become dirtied, even though they were chasing after him.

Because he was different.

And this difference, it scared the others. The boy knew that even his own parents were afraid of him, thinking he was cursed. They even bought an expensive amulet in hope of keeping his curse away.

It didn't do anything. But he carried around everywhere just so that his parents were happy, thinking he was healed. But he wasn't healed, because he was never cursed.

He was simply different.

And this different led him to find a wooden doll in some bushes, past some impressive hiding spells, old and fragile with age.

He felt the wooden doll's presence, it was sleeping. He tried all he knew to wake its spirit, but to no avail. And that was when he realized it might be cursed.

And so the tiny boy climbed up the wooden doll and put his charm around its neck, maybe the pendant’s curse breaking effects would help the doll awaken.

And it did.

The doll’s fear, panic hit the boy first, causing him to lose his grip and fall off the wooden being. Next was confusion and then at last a feeling exhaustion.

The boy slowly approached where he saw the doll’s wooden eyeholes and felt a sense of inquisitiveness wash over him, stemming from the doll once it saw him. He gave a small smile and a wave, and the doll sent him the emotional equivalent of a cocked head.

“Hello Mister Doll” the boy said. “I felt you sleeping and so I thought you’d like to be woken?” Thankfulness, interest.

“You’ve got a nasty curse on you there, Mister Doll. I do not why, but my pendant is weakening it enough, so you have woken. Are you alright?” Worry, doubt, questioning.

“I do not know how you came here” the boy explained. “But you don’t need to worry about anyone else finding you. You’ve got some really old but strong concealment spells on you. I only found you cause I could feel you.” Questioning, wondering, inquisition.

“No, I do not know what you want to ask. I can only feel you, not hear your thoughts.” Frustration.

The boy giggled: “You really seem to want to know a lot. How about when I come back here tomorrow, I’ll bring a book and we can learn something together.” Longing, excitement.

“Oh, you like books! That’s good! Me too!” the boy laughed. Then he quickly twirled around when he heard his name being called by his worried parents.

“Oops, guess I gotta go, Mister Doll. Was nice meeting you. I guess we’ll talk more later?” Worry, confusion, sadness, loneliness.

“I’ll be fine and you surely, too. Bye for now!” and the boy dashed away from his new friend before he could get an answer.

0oOo0

And so time flew by. The boy would bring day by day book by book to Mister Doll and read for him, tell from his day and just finally enjoy having something he could call a friend. Mister Doll didn’t judge his strange ability, he was not scared, instead he was interested and wanted to know about the boy’s strange ability. But he was also sad and lonely and tired, and the boy did his best to cheer Mister Doll up.

Once he brought him an old book with a poem about the legendary Totem Heroes, who were the heroes of Hytopia and the Mister Doll seemed torn between laughing and crying and the boy could do nothing but rub the doll’s wooden back and hope he felt it.

To sum it up, they both helped each other and thanks to the Mister Doll’s gentle coaching, the boy finally managed to reign in his ability. After that, he only seemed half as scary to the other kids and finally made some more friends.

But always would make sure to come and visit his first friend every day.

And as time passed, the boy grew up, fell in love, and finally married. He would have loved to invite Mister Doll, but the wooden being gently reminded him that the others would probably not understand why he’d drag a for them inanimate object to his wedding and insist on it being his best man. The doll was touched of course, but also something seemed to worry him about leaving his hiding place and so the boy now a man nodded and instead opted to visit his long year friend before and after and tell him literally every single detail.

And then when the man had his first born, a daughter, he of course instantly took her with him to make her meet his best friend.

His wife thought he was a little loopy regarding that aspect, but she loved him neither the less and seeing as it didn’t do him any harm, she let him have his fun with his “Mister Doll”.

From then on, every day the man would take his daughter to see his best friend and they’d talk for hours, or as much as you could describe their mostly one-sided discussions as talks.

His daughter, as it turned out, might not be emphatic like he was, but she could see souls. And she told Mister Doll with a smile on her little face that his soul was not complete, which worried the man greatly but didn’t seem to surprise Mister Doll much and seeing as he had no way to properly explain and it didn’t seem harmful, the man left the topic alone.

And everything continued, the days melted into months, into years until one day the man stopped visiting. He didn’t come the second, the third day and it worried the doll greatly.

And then after a week the little girl came to Mister Doll with tears in her eyes and a book in her arms. “Mimi’s Papa is not coming home, they say. Mimi’s Papa is now in the sky, they say,” she explained sobbing. “But Mimi knows. Mimi is not stupid. Papa is now sleeping forever. But Mimi is brave. She promised Papa she’d not let Mister Doll go lonely.”

And she sat down to the wooden doll’s feet and started to read the book to him, struggling with every word as tears blurred her vision. And if she was emphatic like the man had been, she’d have known that if the wooden doll had the anatomy to cry, he would have joined her.

And thus time passed once more, now the girl visiting the doll instead of the man.

And then one day the princess of the fashion forward country got cursed. The girl cared as much as her father about that, which translates to next to none, but it also meant that soon their heroes of legend would surely return. While the girl was excited at that prospect the doll felt nothing but dread, but the girl couldn’t know that.

What she did know was that the boy, who’d become Hytopia’s hero, was strange. She saw his soul and while it seemed new and healed, it was yet incomplete. And she saw how he talked through signs with the shadow beneath his feet who also held part of a soul and she wondered.

And so the girl talked to the hero and questioned him about his adventures.

“It’s really weird” he’d explain quietly. “That old mage seems really possessive and he’s got these creepy wooden dolls I’ve got to take with me if I want to enter the Drablands. He calls them Doppels. I swear, they’re sentient. And whenever I have to switch bodies, which is really wrong on so many levels and take on theirs, mine also becomes a doll. It’s terrifying.”

The girl would nod and wonder if Mister Doll was also a Doppel and if the reason the old mage was so possessive of his Doppels was because one of them got stolen or came truly alive enough to run away.

The hero meanwhile carried on: “And you know what? Every time I change to one of the other bodies and they then come alive I feel slightly different. If I go to the Blue one, I’m suddenly more daring and aggressive and if I go to the Red one, I’m much more emotional. It’s really scary. And you know what’s the worst?”

Mimi shook her head and the hero’s shadow walked nervously in circles around them. No, she could not imagine anything worse.

And so the hero explained: “My whole life I feel like something’s missing. I’ve been searching everywhere for whatever it is. And then, once I’ve left my body and suddenly am within one of the Doppels, it feels like whatever this missing thing is, I just got a tiny part back. And every time I have to go back to own body, it hurts as if I’m tearing myself to pieces. I hate it. I hate it so much and I yearn to get this feeling of completeness that I never knew. And I’m scared of the day when I defeat that witch and free the princess because it might mean that I never get that momentary feeling of getting something I need to live back.”

The girl nodded in thought and the shadow signed the hero something and the hero just shook his head tiredly. And the girl saw how the young hero’s soul was incomplete and bleeding, wounds ripped wide open. And so she said: “Link does not need to worry. Everything will clear. Mimi wants Link to follow her.”

And because he didn’t have anything better to do, the hero followed the girl as she led him. And then both of them reached the bushes where the girl’s dead father’s secret friend stood hidden.

“As Link has described to Mimi” the girl explained. “Mimi thinks she knows a Doppel. He’s sentient and Papa’s best friend. Papa called him Mister Doll, but he also said that Mister Doll is particularly fond of colors.”

And the girl brushed the bushes aside to reveal the doll to hero and time seemed to pause.

Then time continued and the shadow seemed to dance between them with excitement, desperately trying to become attached to the doll instead of the hero, which upset the hero because he could not understand.

And so the shadow signed to the hero to explain and the hero frowned at the shadow: “What do you mean, he’s your friend? It’s the first time we meet him!” Angry signing.

“I would know, you’ve been attached to me my whole life, you weirdo!” More signing.

“And don’t sass me or I’ll go back to ignoring you.”

But then the hero paused wide eyed. “The Doppel…he’s upset” he whispered. “And happy? And absolutely a nervous wreck.”

He stumbled back, wide eyed for once looking as young and unsure as he truly was, trying to get as far away from the wooden figure as he could, while his shadow tried everything within his power to come closer.

“Why am I feeling this?” the hero asked the girl panicked. The girl shrugged nonchalantly: “Because Link’s soul is reaching out. All the pieces call to each other and because Mister Doll’s piece is not sleeping, he can answer. Papa could talk with souls as well, he could talk to every soul. Link’s soul can only communicate with himself.”

The hero stared at the doll a moment longer and then he fled, dragging his non-cooperating shadow behind him, leaving the girl to stand alone.

She turned to the doll with sad eyes: “He’ll come around. And now Mimi is going to read you the story of the Totem Heroes, because Papa said you liked that story best.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mimi is a canon character. I don't understand why its not possible to properly tag her, but I guess I'll have to do that way now.  
> Thoughts anyone?


End file.
